Monday, October 13, 2008

Be Original People!!!!

I learned today that yet another children's book (one of my favs) is being made into a movie. It irks me when this is done because then kids (and adults too) decide not to read the book because they'll just wait for the movie. Or they have seen the movie so they think reading the book is a not necessary.

GRRRRRRRRRR........

Now, I realize that kids (and grown-ups too) get excited about a book they have read being made into a movie and it is very cool to see your favorite characters come to life on the big screen but seriously...can't the movie people be a little bit more original? Give us something new to think about. We already know the story of Harry Potter...and Horton Hears A Who...and The City of Ember...and Bridge To Terebithia...and Spiderwick Chronicles...and A Series of Unfortunate Events...and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...and The Chronicles of Narnia...and the list goes on and on. I'd say about 90% of children's movies these days are movies made from books. If authors can think of new stories to write, screenwriters can surely think of some too. I'm just sayin'.

See, when you take a really good book and you make it into a movie, kids no longer pick up the book and actually read to find out what will happen next. They know already and you have taken that magic away from them. They may pick it up and read it anyways because they love the story but 9 times out of 10, they just thumb through it and read over their favorite parts.

It just makes me sad. And now one of my favorites is going to be made into a movie and it's one that I have just discovered and am getting the kids excited about. *sigh*

7 comments:

That's kind of sad that people are like that. I had to kind of look at this from your angle because I'm not really like that. In fact, if I see a book being made into a movie, it'll make me want to read the book.

But then, here's a few comments I got when I was in school:

"Why don't you just watch the movie instead of reading the book?"

and

"You're one of those people that reads the book instead of the movie."

Yeah. And I guess that mindset isn't unique, which is sad. And I'm all thrilled when books I like get made into movies, but the movies are rarely as good as the book (one exception is that I liked the movie version of Stardust better than the book).

It does bother me that a lot of people don't take the time to read. You get so much out of it, but it does take the time commitment (ie: a week or two to read a book that would take two hours to watch). Sadness reigns.

I need to read The Lightning Thief. My kids keep bugging me to read it, and a lot of friends for that matter. Guess I should before the movie comes out. (I'm like Matt in that when a movie is being made from a book, I'll read the book before I go see it.)

I never thought about it like that, Rhia. I used to get excited when a book was going to be made into a movie because I could read the book, then pick apart the movie. It is way too overdone now. And they arn't even making good movies anymore. Eragon? Come on. That was an ok book and a CRAPPY movie. I slept through the whole thing. And the movie version of The Golden Compass wasn't very good either. If you are going to make a favorite book into a movie, at least do a good job.

I don't want you to feel guilty for going to see the movies you see. I mean, I'll be in line to see The Lightning Thief too, but I just think that if people can write books that are good enough to be made into movies, then people can also write (or make) good movies that aren't books yet too.